


You Won't

by Natasja



Series: Downton Abbey one-shots [2]
Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: BIG ONES, Do not read this if you like her, F/M, Gen, I have issues with that subplot, Internal Monologues, Language, Mrs Hughes is a secret badass, Not Edna-friendly, Period Typical Attitudes, Period-Typical Sexism, seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:55:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21731836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Natasja/pseuds/Natasja
Summary: Mrs Hughes has seen the likes of Edna Braithwaite before. It’s not poor Mr Branson’s fault, she knows, and she’s seen too many men fall victim to being tricked by a clever woman with no scruples. Mrs Hughes won’t let Lady Sybil’s grieving husband fall victim to a manipulative shrew.
Relationships: (mentioned) - Relationship, Tom Branson/Sybil Crawley, one-sided Edna/Tom
Series: Downton Abbey one-shots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1764919
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37





	You Won't

Elsie Hughes had been in service most of her life, and the Housekeeper at Downton for longer than most of those who worked there had been alive. Over the years, she’d developed a knack for telling which of the staff would stay and who was only there temporarily. She was rarely mistaken in her judgement. (Tom didn’t count; he’d stayed for Lady Sybil, not because he liked the work. He would have been off to become a Journalist or manage his own business long ago, if not for love.)

Gwen… Mrs Hughes had her in mind as the next Housekeeper, as good as she was with records and accounts. If not for Lady Sibyl being willing to help Gwen achieve her far-flung dream, the maid would have been a good successor. Anna was a Lady’s Maid in training from the moment she started helping the young ladies of the house. That was a different skill-set to Housekeeper, and she and Gwen would have made a good team, had things gone differently.

Ethel might have made it to Head of Maids, had she not allowed her head to be turned by pretty words and a handsome face. That Major Bryant had been trouble from the moment he arrived, and Mrs Hughes doubted that poor Ethel was the first or the last young lass to be left ruined in his wake. But, the girl had managed well for herself, in the end, and returned to service, even if it was not at Downton.

Edna Braithwaite, on the other hand… Elsie had known girls like her, and knew that her time at Downton would be of no great duration. No mind for the distance, however slight, that must remain between Family and Staff. No respect for the emotions and desires of others, if they clashed with what she wanted or felt she deserved. Ambition, but no desire to achieve it honestly. Mrs Hughes wished she had listened to her gut instinct during the interview, but with Ethel gone and Downton so short-staffed… well, there was no use fretting over what might have been.

Mrs Hughes had told Mr Carson that Thomas wasn’t the first person of… that persuasion… that she’d known. What she didn’t say was that one of them was her own brother, who had committed suicide when a maid from the House where Elsie had previously worked had found him out, blackmailing him into marriage in exchange for her silence, because she wanted to be mistress of a farm well-off enough to hire a maid and farmhands. Then she forced poor James to give up his lover, and sleep with her despite knowing that he hated every second. When the conniving wretch demanded that they send poor, simple-minded Becky to an asylum… John chose death over letting her control him again. Elsie saw her sister settled comfortably with someone to look after her, then left Argyll and never looked back.

* * *

Mrs Hughes saw the same signs with Edna, directed at Tom Branson.

As if the poor man hadn’t been recently made a Widower, Edna was acting as though he were displaying interest in her, when any fool with eyes could see that Mr Branson never had eyes for anyone but Lady Sybil! Mrs Hughes would never condemn them for finding happiness in each other, not when Mr Branson had been any woman’s ideal husband, and Lady Sybil would have been miserable in a marriage ‘suitable to her station’. She might be among a rare few in that attitude, but the Bransons had been a loving and supportive marriage, and Mrs Hughes would not allow anyone, be they Staff or stranger, to cheapen it, especially not now that all they could do for Lady Sybil was honour her memory.

Grief did odd things to the mind, though, and Elsie could see that Mr Branson was desperately lonely. His wife was dead in childbirth, leaving him adrift with a bairn to raise alone. He was distant from the staff that he used to call his close friends, yet not quite one of the Family that he used to serve, then married into, but whose ways were still so new to him. Every tiny custom and tradition that the Crawleys had been raised with and Mr Branson hadn’t gnawed away at the poor man, another reminder that he was far from home and family, alone in a foreign land.

He tried, but felt his perceived failures keenly, and with Edna poking at every insecurity, compounding the isolation he felt when she put him in a position where the Staff had to remind him of the barriers between them… Mrs Hughes couldn’t send Edna away fast enough.

She felt strongly enough about the matter to protest when the manipulative chit returned as a Lady’s Maid, something she had never done before, but to no avail. Mrs Hughes resolved to keep a close eye on Edna, and bide her time. It wouldn’t be long before Edna did something worthy of dismissal.

* * *

When Mr Branson came to her, seeking help and advice, Elsie saw red, and if it would have been possible, she’d have dragged the conniving whore to Satan’s judgment in person, and waited until the Fallen One delivered a punishment to her satisfaction!

Deliberately walking in on a man who was changing, ignoring his request for her to leave and kissing him, sneaking into his bed when she knew he was drunk and depressed and barely sensible of what was going on around him! If Edna had been a man and Lady Sybil in Mr Branson’s place, no-one would have hesitated in summoning the constables, yet Edna had the nerve to play the wronged woman taken advantage of! Worse, if she went public, the vast majority would believe her, not the man she attacked.

Mr Branson had been honest. He didn’t know whether or not they had been intimate (though Elsie had no doubt that Edna certainly went out of her way to leave that impression). He had indulged perhaps a little more than was wise, and dreamed of the wife he never stopped missing. Mrs Hughes didn’t need need him to elaborate on what kind of dream it was, to leave him so concerned about Edna potentially being with child.

That was the other problem, of course. Mr Branson was Irish and Catholic and honourable and a loving father to Miss Sybbie. He’d never abandon a child of his, especially if he believed that to do so would bring it harm. Mrs Crawley’s story of what Ethel had gone through since being abandoned by Major Bryant all but assured that Tom would accept being more miserable than he already was, to protect another from that fate.

Not that Mrs Hughes believed that there was a child. Edna might not be anywhere near as clever as she thought herself, but she wasn’t so foolish that she wouldn’t take precautions until she had Mr Branson bound by his word and a cuckoo egg in the nest. Well, there was still time to nip this in the bud, and Elsie Hughes had every intention of a good pruning.

* * *

It was no easy thing, to contain her fury when Edna had the gall to assume that Mr Branson, or anyone at Downton, would pay her off. Oh, doubtless she’d protest until she was offered an allowance for the rest of her life, or a sum big enough to set her up with a house and servants of her own. Elsie knew the type; if she couldn’t have marriage, she’d happily be a kept woman with a babe in the Downton nursery. Some noble families might throw money at such problems until they went away, but Mrs Hughes had no intention of rewarding the unprincipled shrew in any way, shape or form!

With difficulty, Mrs Hughes remained calm and unmoved, unwilling to show any weakness for the shameless hussy to pounce on. As expected, Edna had been making a study of birth control methods, and lost her composure when confronted with the evidence. That was enough to assure Mr Branson that she’d been lying all along (though Mrs Hughes didn’t put it past the girl to have taken the opportunity when she had the chance, but Mr Branson didn’t need to hear that on top of everything else he’d been put through). When Edna threatened to tell the Family, Mrs Hughes finally let some of her anger through, just enough to frighten the little slut who had never known the Housekeeper to be anything but calm and controlled.

Mrs Hughes would have done it, too. Perhaps a doctor couldn’t tell if a baby was forthcoming, or even if Edna had recently been… active. Even so, there was nothing stopping Elsie from locking the bitch in her office and carrying her own tale to Lady Grantham. That her Ladyship’s scarf had been damaged while Edna had been meeting a lover, how Mrs Hughes had caught her sneaking in late, with the book as evidence. How she had overheard Edna and her lover planning to accuse Mr Branson.

One way or another, Edna would not spend another night at Downton, nor come near them again. If Elsie had to stain her soul with a few slightly exaggerated tales to accomplish that, then that was a price she was willing to pay. She made a note to send a missive to every Housekeeper in the county, warning them off Edna, just in case. Any good housekeeper knew how to drop a hint to their lady about a staff member who wasn’t willing to keep to their place. Few Ladies wanted a maid who spent more time putting on airs than doing their job.

Elsie Hughes might not have Mr Carson’s devotion to the Crawley family, but she couldn’t abide people who so abused others for their own gain.

Thomas and Miss O’Brian might have played games at other people’s expense, but even they had limits, and knew how far was too far. Besides, Miss O’Brian was gone, and Thomas had softened some since he’d seen the staff rally around him when he was exposed, and was remorseful when a wicked ‘joke’ or sly bit of gossip blew out of his control and genuinely hurt someone. Both could be kind when they chose.

Edna felt no such repentant urges, and if she had the nerve to assault someone who could ruin her with a word, one of the Family she was supposed to be loyal to… Mrs Hughes didn’t trust her around the more vulnerable footmen or hall boys.

Edna left to pack and write a note of resignation, and Mrs Hughes turned her attention to reassuring Mr Branson. His only fault was his willingness to be kind and polite, and treat everyone equally, and she hoped that he didn’t lose that just because one person had taken cruel advantage.

She only hoped that the matter would be laid to rest now.

**Author's Note:**

> If Tom had been Tina and Edna had been Eddie, fans would have been screaming for her head on a platter.  
> I am not remotely ok, with the semi-subtle victim blaming that the show indulged in, and I cheered Mrs Hughes when she stood up for Tom. The sheer gall of Edna claiming that if Tom was good enough for Lady Sybil then she deserved a shot at him, ignoring all that Tom and Sybil went through and the fact that they loved each other, actually rendered me incoherent.
> 
> Tom is feeling lonely and insecure and isolated, a perfect target for manipulation. And that is what Edna did, no matter what kind of pretty spin people try to put on it.


End file.
